Darkfever
This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.
5 Stars!
I am bumping my rating up a star this time. Any book that makes me want to keep reading it over and over like everyone of the books in this series should probably be rated a full 5 stars. I vividly remember the first time that I encountered this book. It was a Saturday morning during the summer and I had decided to go to a few yard sales. I was the happiest yard sale shopper around when I found a reader's house that had tons books for sale for 25ยข a piece. I left with a lot of great books that day but I found myself drawn to the three books by Karen Marie Moning - Darkfever, Bloodfever, and Faefever. I consumed all three very quickly and immediately looked for the next book in the series but it wasn't released yet. I only had to wait a couple of months until it was released but the wait was horrible. This book started it all and I can honestly say that it is one of the best quarters that I have ever spent.
MacKayla Lane, or Mac, is a southern girl. She's pretty, well loved and is content to live her life close to her family. That is until her sister Alina is murdered in Ireland. She goes to Ireland to try to solve her sister's murder and finds that Ireland is a whole different world than her little town of Ashford, Georgia. She sees things that are impossible in her mind.
"If you can't keep your head down and honor your bloodline, then do us all a favor-go die somewhere else."
After getting lost in Dublin, Mac finds herself at Barron's Books and Baubles. She asks a few questions that quickly spark the owner's attention. This is how we meet Jericho Z. Barrons. Barrons has got to be one of the best, if not the best, alpha male characters created on a page. In this book we see him save the day, act like an ass, kill, and even paint Mac's fingernails. This man can do anything AND he owns a book store. Sign me up as a huge fan.
He didn't just occupy space; he saturated it. The room had been full of books before, now it was full of him.
This book has some of the best world building that I have had the opportunity to read. This is the third time that I have read this book but the first time that I have read it since reading Shadowfever and I am amazed at how much is foreshadowed in this first book. Obviously, Moning had to have had the entire series plotted out before this novel was written and the details are just amazing. We learn with Mac what is going on in our world. I really like Mac a lot even in this first book. I love that we are able to watch her grow from the spoiled southern belle to the girl ready to fight and take risks during this first book in the series.
If you have not already read this series, then you really need to try to work it in....as soon as possible. It really is as good as everyone says - maybe better. This is really the kind of book that you will find yourself going back to again and again. Let me give you one piece of advice before you start Darkfever - get the whole series ready to go. There are some cliffhanger endings and you are going to need the next book as soon as you can get your hands on it. The year that I had to wait for Shadowfever to be released was torture - trust me you don't want to wait between these books.